Bomber's Blog: Coming Out Swinging

Former Panthers forward and current radio analyst Bill Lindsay will be blogging on floridapanthers.com on anything that crosses his mind.

Lindsay who spent seven seasons (1993-2002) with the Cats and played in 506 games and collected 165 points is now a radio analyst on 790 The Ticket.

Lindsay will always be remembered in Cats history for his series-clinching goal in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Boston Bruins in the '96 playoffs.

Bomber's Blog Archive
No Horton, no Zednik, no Stillman, no Booth, no Allen, No problem for the surging Panthers. The Panthers won their third consecutive game,and now have points in six straight, and all this coming at a time when they could have folded the tent and packed the season away. They had all the excuses in the book, they played the most road games in the league, had the most injuries, had a new coaching staff, Olli Jokinen was gone, and there was no way they could ever score enough goals. In the midst of all this chaos the Florida Panthers have got up from some mighty blows, dusted themselves off, and started swinging back with a vengance.

A group of individuals working together towards a common goal, is what probably best describes the meaning of a team. Florida now seems to have recognized the strength of this group is much stronger than the individual. Going into Thursday night's game, Horton, Booth, Zednik, and Stillman had combined for over 550 goals in their career, the twenty Panthers that were in uniform last night had just a shade over 650 combined. Given this fact, it seemed nearly impossible that Florida would be able to pull out victories. I mean c'mon they weren't scoring any goals with everyone healthy.

A couple of funny things have happened though. Florida has started winning and they have started scoring. How is this possible?

It has been an amazing turn-around by a group of individuals that has realized to get something done they must do it together. A lot of the credit has to go to head coach Peter Deboer, as he is the leader and has gotten everyone to start buying what he is selling. It always takes time for a new coach to make an impact on a team, but it seems Peter has the ship pointed in the right direction.

As far as the team itself goes, Campbell, Peltonen, and Dvorak have been spearheading the charge. They are defensive specialists, but right now their offense is keeping the Panthers afloat. Campbell already has tied a career high for goals with six in only 20 games. They are scoring because they are working their butts off to create opportunities for themselves. Bowmeester has been spectacular on defense, as he is playing at a level that if he would be able to sustain for the rest of the year would make him a Norris Trophy candidate. Weiss has been his solid usual self, Kreps is winning all his faceoffs, Ballard is hitting and blocking shots, and evryone else is contributing in their own way.

Did I forget to mention Craig Anderson? I think I did. Amazing. Spectacular. Dazzling. Fabulicious. Sensational. These are just a few words to describe his goaltending over the past couple weeks. Everything that I said about the Panthers being a team I believe is true, but Anderson has been the Hero almost every night. It has been some of the best goaltending I have ever seen, the question is can he keep it up for an extended stretch. The Panthers could have the best goaltending tandem overall in the NHL.

The Panthers are going to need all their injured players back in the line up for long term success. As well as the Panthers have played, they are still getting outshot almost everynight. If that trend continues, no matter how great your goaltenders are, your chances of winning over the long haul diminish greatly. The injured players when they come back have to stop at the counter and make sure they buy what Peter Deboer is selling. If they do this and add all their talent to the TEAM, the future will be filled with hope and quite possibly a trip to the playoffs for the Panthers.